I'd heard about this show all the way from London's West End, which went on to Broadway and became a Tony Award-winning hit. I thought, "How good could a show with a title like OPERATION MINCEMEAT be???" Damn good. Astoundingly good. Based on an outlandish but true tale that helped the Allies win WWII, it [...]
Would that Aaron Sorkin had taken Emily Dickinson's ironic poem about "split[ting] the lark --and you'll find the music" to heart. The first thing we hear is violinist Ashley Frith whose music is a thing of beauty. Then Sorkin takes an ax to Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and does exactly that. Presented by [...]
ALL MY SONS hit me like a sledgehammer. LYRIC STAGE BOSTON has kicked off its fall season with a shattering production of Arthur Miller's classic about family, personal success, and communal responsibility. An exceptional ensemble brings it home which is exactly where Miller wanted it to go--straight to the heart of America 1947, as it [...]
In case you hadn't heard me giving a shout out to COME FROM AWAY on The Culture Show --hear me now! NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE has mounted an excellent production of this moving musical about the impact of 9/11 on the tiny Newfoundland town of Gander and the 7000 airline passengers grounded there from all [...]
I'm back! After weeks of vacation I am happy to review one of the best productions mounted by American Repertory Theater:RHINOCEROS by Eugene Ionesco starring two of our finest actors, John Turturro and Paul Giamatti. Together, they ride the rhythms of Ionesco's "absurdist" play adapted by the A.R.T. to underscore the obvious: absurdity is as [...]
I returned from Southeast Asia apparently dragging the heat and humidity with me but absolutely unable to get the last thing I saw onstage before I left out of my head: BLACK SWAN! Melanie Moore (Nina)/Credit: Hawver and Hall This world premiere production still onstage until July 12 at the American Rep Theater, [...]
It's a revelation: EUREKA DAY now onstage at THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE is a A WILDLY FUNNY satire with a pitch-perfect cast attempting to unravel the Gordion knot of woke communication in the real world where consensus is a dream. The Tony Award-winning play by Jonathan Spector is a spot-on parody of the post biblical Tower [...]
DO NOT MISS the funniest show of the season now blowing up at LYRIC STAGE BOSTON: SOMETHING ROTTEN! I walked in casually and left hysterically laughing at the lunatic exuberance of this uproarious production-- a mad, musical theater send-up directed by Ilana Ransom Toeplitz in her Lyric Stage debut. May it be the beginning of [...]
I've been thinking about the musical SWEPT AWAY ever since I saw its New England premiere capping off SpeakEasy Stage's 35th Anniversary season, its first destination since an acclaimed Broadway sojourn. Director Jeremy Johnson runs a tight ship: 90 minutes from stem to stern! Though the set design is merely serviceable, what happens on that [...]
Love that frisky title: DIDO OF IDAHO! The play by Abby Rosebrock, now onstage at APOLLINAIRE THEATRE, is a mad mash-up of myth and modern romance about a latter day "Dido" named Nora, in love with her wayward "Aeneas" Michael. The classic myth culminates in his betrayal and her suicide. Rosebrock's dark comedy culminates in [...]
